Search

Heavy-quark spin symmetry (HQSS) implies that in the direct decay of a heavy quarkonium with spin $S$, only lower lying heavy quarkonia with the same spin $S$ can be produced. However, this selection rule, expected to work very well in the $b$-quark sector, can be overcome if multiquark intermediate states are involved in the decay chain, allowing for transitions to the final-state heavy quarkonia with a different spin $S^{\prime}$. In particular, the measured decays $\Upsilon(10860)\to \pi Z_b^{(\prime)} \to \pi\pi\Upsilon(nS)$ $(n=1,2,3)$ and $\Upsilon(10860)\to \pi Z_b^{(\prime)} \to \pi\pi h_b(mP)$ ($m=1,2$) appear to have nearly equal strengths which is conventionally explained by a simultaneous presence of both $S_{b\bar{b}}=0$ and $S_{b\bar{b}}=1$ components in the wave functions of the $Z_b$'s in equal shares. Meanwhile, the destructive interference between the contributions of the $Z_b$ and $Z_b'$ to the decay amplitude for a $\pi\pi h_b$ final state kills the signal to zero in the strict HQSS limit. In this paper, we discuss how the HQSS violation needs to be balanced by the narrowness of the $Z_b^{(\prime)}$ states in the physical case, to allow for equal transition strengths into final states with different total heavy quark spins, and how spin symmetry is restored as a result of a subtle interplay of the scales involved, when the mass of a heavy quark becomes infinite. Moreover, we demonstrate how similar branching fractions of the decays into $\pi\pi h_b$ and $\pi\pi\Upsilon$ can be obtained and how the mentioned HQSS breaking can be reconciled with the dispersive approach to the $\pi\pi/ K\bar K$ interaction in the final state and matched with the low-energy chiral dynamics in both final states., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures

The pi- + 2H -> n + n, pi- + 3H -> n + n + n, pi- + 3He -> n + d and pi- + 3He -> p + n + n capture reactions from the lowest atomic orbitals are studied under full inclusion of final state interactions. Our results are obtained with the single-nucleon and two-nucleon transition operators derived at leading order in chiral effective field theory. The initial and final three-nucleon states are calculated with the chiral nucleon-nucleon SMS potential up to N4LO+ augmented by the consistently regularized chiral N2LO three-nucleon potential. We found that absorption rates depend strongly on the nuclear pion absorption operator used, and its two-body parts change the rates by a few orders of magnitude. The final state interactions between nucleons generated by the two-nucleon forces are also important, while the three-nucleon interaction plays a visible role only in the pi- + 3He -> n + d reaction. Our absorption rate for the pi- + 2H -> n + n process is in good agreement with the experimental data from the hadronic ground-state broadening in pionic deuterium. The capture rates on 3He are also generally consistent with the spectroscopic data within error bars, though our central values are found to be systematically below the data. We show that for the three-body breakup processes the dominant contributions to the absorption rates arise from the quasi-free scattering and final-state interaction kinematical configurations., Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures; authors' list corrected

We perform an effective-field-theory-based coupled-channel analysis of the recent BES III data on the $e^+e^-$ annihilation into the final state $K^+(D_s^-D^{*0}+D_s^{*-}D^0)$ in a wide energy range and extract the poles responsible for the formation of the $Z_{cs}(3982)$. We identify two scenarios which provide a similar description of the experimental mass distributions but result in utterly different predictions for the spin partners of the $Z_{cs}(3982)$: although both scenarios are consistent with the $Z_{cs}$ as a $SU(3)$ partner of the $Z_c(3900)$, the $Z_c(4020)$ appears naturally as a spin partner of these states only in one of them (fit 1) while in the other (fit 2) its nature has to be different. Also, the $Z_{cs}(3982)$ has a $J^{P}=1^+$ spin partner near the $\bar D_s^* D^*$ threshold in fit 1, while no such state exists in fit 2. We predict the $\bar{D}_s^*D^*$ invariant mass distribution in the $J^{P}=1^+$ channel for the reaction $e^+e^-\to K^+D_s^{*-}D^{*0}$ and argue that this line shape can be used to distinguish between the two scenarios once data in this channel are available., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables

The dipion transitions $\Upsilon(10860)\to\pi^+\pi^-\Upsilon(nS)$ ($n=1,2,3$) are studied in the framework of a unitary and analytic coupled-channel formalism previously developed for analysing experimental data on the bottomoniumlike states $Z_b(10610)$ and $Z_b(10650)$ [Phys. Rev. D 98, 074023 (2018)] and predicting the properties of their spin partners [Phys. Rev. D 99, 094013 (2019)]. In this work we use a relatively simple but realistic version of this approach, where the scattering and production amplitudes are constructed employing only short-ranged interactions between the open- and hidden-flavour channels consistent with the constraints from heavy quark spin symmetry, for an extended analysis of the experimental line shapes. In particular, the transitions from the $\Upsilon(10860)$ to the final states $\pi \pi h_b(mP)$ ($m=1,2$) and $\pi B^{(*)}\bar B^* $ already studied before, are now augmented by the $\Upsilon(10860)\to\pi^+\pi^-\Upsilon(nS)$ final states ($n=1,2,3$). This is achieved by employing dispersion theory to account for the final state interaction of the $\pi\pi$ subsystem including its coupling to the $K\bar K$ channel. Fits to the two-dimensional Dalitz plots for the $\pi^+\pi^-\Upsilon$ final states were performed. Two real subtraction constants are adjusted to achieve the best description of the Dalitz plot for each $\Upsilon(nS)$ $(n=1,2,3)$ while all the parameters related to the properties of the $Z_b$'s are kept fixed from the previous study. A good overall description of the data for all $\Upsilon(10860)\to\pi^+\pi^-\Upsilon(nS)$ channels achieved in this work provides additional strong support for the molecular interpretation of the $Z_b$ states., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures

We present a comprehensive analysis of the deuteron charge and quadrupole form factors based on the latest two-nucleon potentials and charge density operators derived in chiral effective field theory. The single- and two-nucleon contributions to the charge density are expressed in terms of the proton and neutron form factors, for which the most up-to-date empirical parametrizations are employed. By adjusting the fifth-order short-range terms in the two-nucleon charge density operator to reproduce the world data on the momentum-transfer dependence of the deuteron charge and quadrupole form factors, we predict the values of the structure radius and the quadrupole moment of the deuteron: $r_{\rm str}=1.9729\substack{+0.0015\\ -0.0012}\ \text{fm},\ Q_d=0.2854\substack{+0.0038\\ -0.0017}\ \text{fm}^2. $ A comprehensive and systematic analysis of various sources of uncertainty in our predictions is performed. Following the strategy advocated in our recent publication Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 082501 (2020), we employ the extracted structure radius together with the accurate atomic data for the deuteron-proton mean-square charge radii difference to update the determination of the neutron charge radius, for which we find: $r_n^2=-0.105\substack{+0.005\\ -0.006} \, \text{fm}^2$. Given the observed rapid convergence of the deuteron form factors in the momentum-transfer range of $Q \simeq 1-2.5$ fm$^{-1}$, we argue that this intermediate-energy domain is particularly sensitive to the details of the nucleon form factors and can be used to test different parametrizations., Comment: 39 pages, 9 figures

Numerous exotic candidates containing a heavy quark and anti-quark (the so-called $XYZ$ states) have been reported since the observation of the $X(3872)$ in 2003. For these systems a study of the implications of the heavy quark spin symmetry and its breaking is expected to provide useful guidance towards a better understanding of their nature. For instance, since the formation of the complete spin multiplets is described with the same parameter sets, in some cases the currently available experimental data on the $XYZ$ states allows us to predict properties of spin partner states. To illustrate this point we extract the parameters of the two $Z_b$ states by analyzing the most recent experimental data within an effective-field theory approach which treats both short-ranged contact interactions and the long-ranged one-pion/one-eta Goldstone boson exchanges (OPE/OEE) dynamically. The line shapes and pole positions of their spin partners are then predicted in a parameter-free way and await to be tested by future experimental data., Comment: Proceeding of the XVIII International Conference on Hadron Spectroscopy and Structure (HADRON-2019), August 16-21, Guilin, China

We present a high-accuracy calculation of the deuteron structure radius in chiral effective field theory. Our analysis employs the state-of-the-art semilocal two-nucleon potentials and takes into account two-body contributions to the charge density operators up to fifth order in the chiral expansion. The strength of the fifth-order short-range two-body contribution to the charge density operator is adjusted to the experimental data on the deuteron charge form factor. A detailed error analysis is performed by propagating the statistical uncertainties of the low-energy constants entering the two-nucleon potentials and by estimating errors from the truncation of the chiral expansion as well as from uncertainties in the nucleon form factors. Using the predicted value for the deuteron structure radius together with the very accurate atomic data for the difference of the deuteron and proton charge radii we, for the first time, extract the charge radius of the neutron from light nuclei. The extracted value reads $r_n^2 = - 0.106 \substack{ +0.007\\ -0.005\\} \, \text{fm}^2$ and its magnitude is about $1.7\sigma$ smaller than the current value given by the Particle Data Group. In addition, given the high accuracy of the calculated deuteron charge form factor and its careful and systematic error analysis, our results open the way for an accurate determination of the nucleon form factors from elastic electron-deuteron scattering data measured at the Mainz Microtron and other experimental facilities., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, supplementary material available in source package

We study baryon-baryon scattering by applying time-ordered perturbation theory to the manifestly Lorentz-invariant formulation of SU(3) baryon chiral perturbation theory. We derive the corresponding diagrammatic rules paying special attention to complications caused by momentum-dependent interactions and propagators of particles with non-zero spin. We define the effective potential as a sum of two-baryon irreducible contributions of time-ordered diagrams and derive a system of integral equations for the scattering amplitude, which provides a coupled-channel generalization of the Kadyshevsky equation. The obtained leading-order baryon-baryon potentials are perturbatively renormalizable, and the corresponding integral equations have unique solutions in all partial waves. We discuss the issue of additional finite subtractions required to improve the ultraviolet convergence of (finite) loop integrals on the example of nucleon-nucleon scattering in the $^3P_0$ partial wave. Assuming that corrections beyond leading order can be treated perturbatively, we obtain a fully renormalizable formalism which can be employed to study baryon-baryon scattering., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, final version published in Phys. Lett. B

In a recent paper Phys.Rev. D98, 074023 (2018), the most up-to-date experimental data for all measured production and decay channels of the bottomonium-like states $Z_b(10610)$ and $Z_b(10650)$ were analysed in a field-theoretical coupled-channel approach which respects analyticity and unitarity and incorporates both the pion exchange as well as a short-ranged potential nonperturbatively. All parameters of the interaction were fixed directly from data, and pole positions for both $Z_b$ states were determined. In this work we employ the same approach to predict in a parameter-free way the pole positions and the line shapes in the elastic and inelastic channels of the (still to be discovered) spin partners of the $Z_b$ states. They are conventionally referred to as $W_{bJ}$'s with the quantum numbers $J^{PC}=J^{++}$ ($J=0,1,2$). It is demonstrated that the results of our most advanced pionful fit, which gives the best $\chi^2/{\rm d.o.f.}$ for the data in the $Z_b$ channels, are consistent with all $W_{bJ}$ states being above-threshold resonances which manifest themselves as well pronounced hump structures in the line shapes. On the contrary, in the pionless approach, all $W_{bJ}$'s are virtual states which can be seen as enhanced threshold cusps in the inelastic line shapes. Since the two above scenarios provide different imprints on the observables, the role of the one-pion exchange in the $B^{(*)}\bar{B}^{(*)}$ systems can be inferred from the once available experimental data directly., Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures

The possibility for a common effective field theory for hadronic molecules with different heavy-quark flavours is examined critically. It is argued that such a theory does not allow one to draw definite conclusions for doubly heavy molecules. In particular, it does not allow one to relate binding energies for the molecules in the c-quark and b-quark sectors with controlled uncertainties. Therefore, while this kind of reasoning does not preclude from employing heavy-quark spin symmetry for charmonium- and bottomonium-like states separately within a well established effective field theory framework, relations between different heavy-quark sectors can only be obtained using phenomenological approaches with uncontrolled uncertainties., Comment: 7 pages, extended discussions, added references, version to appear in Eur. Phys. J. C

The most recent experimental data for all measured production and decay channels of the bottomonium-like states $Z_b(10610)$ and $Z_b(10650)$ are analysed simultaneously using solutions of the Lippmann-Schwinger equations which respect constraints from unitarity and analyticity. The interaction potential in the open-bottom channels $B^{(*)}\bar{B}^{*}+\mbox{c.c.}$ contains short-range interactions as well as one-pion exchange. It is found that the long-range interaction does not affect the line shapes as long as only $S$ waves are considered. Meanwhile, the line shapes can be visibly modified once $D$ waves, mediated by the strong tensor forces from the pion exchange potentials, are included. However, in the fit they get balanced largely by a momentum dependent contact term that appears to be needed also to render the results for the line shapes independent of the cut-off. The resulting line shapes are found to be insensitive to various higher-order interactions included to verify stability of the results. Both $Z_b$ states are found to be described by the poles located on the unphysical Riemann sheets in the vicinity of the corresponding thresholds. In particular, the $Z_b(10610)$ state is associated with a virtual state residing just below the $B\bar{B}^{*}/\bar B{B}^{*}$ threshold while the $Z_b(10650)$ state most likely is a shallow state located just above the $B^*\bar{B}^{*}$ threshold., Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures

We study the implications of the heavy-quark spin symmetry for the possible spin partners of the exotic states $Z_b(10610)$ and $Z_b(10650)$ in the spectrum of bottomonium. We formulate and solve numerically the coupled-channel equations for the $Z_b$ states that allow for a dynamical generation of these states as hadronic molecules. The force includes short-range contact terms and the one-pion exchange potential, both treated fully nonperturbatively. The strength of the potential at leading order is fixed completely by the pole positions of the $Z_b$ states such that the mass and the most prominent contributions to the width of the isovector heavy-quark spin partner states $W_{bJ}$ with the quantum numbers $J^{++}$ ($J=0,1,2$) come out as predictions. Since the accuracy of the present experimental data does not allow one to fix the pole positions of the $Z_b$'s reliably enough, we also study the pole trajectories of their spin partner states as functions of the $Z_b$ binding energies. It is shown that, once the heavy-quark spin symmetry is broken by means of the physical $B$ and $B^*$ masses, especially the pion tensor force has a significant impact on the location of the partner states clearly demonstrating the need of a coupled-channel treatment of pion dynamics to understand the spin multiplet pattern of hadronic molecules., Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

It has been proposed recently (Phys. Rev. Lett. 115 (2015), 022001) that the charmoniumlike state named X(3915) and suggested to be a $0^{++}$ scalar, is just the helicity-0 realisation of the $2^{++}$ tensor state $\chi_{c2}(3930)$. This scenario would call for a helicity-0 dominance, which were at odds with the properties of a conventional tensor charmonium, but might be compatible with some exotic structure of the $\chi_{c2}(3930)$. In this paper, we investigate, if such a scenario is compatible with the assumption that the $\chi_{c2}(3930)$ is a $D^*\bar D^*$ molecular state - a spin partner of the $X(3872)$ treated as a shallow bound state. We demonstrate that for a tensor molecule the helicity-0 component vanishes for vanishing binding energy and accordingly for a shallow bound state a helicity-2 dominance would be natural. However, for the $\chi_{c2}(3930)$, residing about 100 MeV below the $D^*\bar D^*$ threshold, there is no a priori reason for a helicity-2 dominance and thus the proposal formulated in the above mentioned reference might indeed point at a molecular structure of the tensor state. Nevertheless, we find that the experimental data currently available favour a dominant contribution of the helicity-2 amplitude also in this scenario, if spin symmetry arguments are employed to relate properties of the molecular state to those of the X(3872). We also discuss what research is necessary to further constrain the analysis., Comment: LaTeX2e, 23 pages, 2 figures, version to appear in JHEP

We revisit the consequences of the heavy-quark spin symmetry for the possible spin partners of the $X(3872)$. We confirm that, if the $X(3872)$ were a $D\bar{D}^*$ molecular state with the quantum numbers $J^{PC}=1^{++}$, then in the strict heavy-quark limit there should exist three more hadronic molecules degenerate with the $X(3872)$, with the quantum numbers $0^{++}$, $1^{+-}$, and $2^{++}$ in line with previous results reported in the literature. We demonstrate that this result is robust with respect to the inclusion of the one-pion exchange interaction between the $D$ mesons. However, this is true only if all relevant partial waves as well as particle channels which are coupled via the pion-exchange potential are taken into account. Otherwise, the heavy-quark symmetry is destroyed even in the heavy-quark limit. Finally, we solve the coupled-channel problem in the $2^{++}$ channel with nonperturbative pions beyond the heavy-quark limit and, contrary to the findings of previous calculations with perturbative pions, find for the spin-2 partner of the $X(3872)$ a significant shift of the mass as well as a width of the order of 50 MeV., Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, version published in Phys.Lett.B

We apply the low-energy theorems to analyze the recent lattice QCD results for the two-nucleon system at a pion mass of $M_\pi\simeq 450$ MeV obtained by the NPLQCD collaboration. We find that the binding energies of the deuteron and dineutron are inconsistent with the low-energy behavior of the corresponding phase shifts within the quoted uncertainties and vice versa. Using the binding energies of the deuteron and dineutron as input, we employ the low-energy theorems to predict the phase shifts and extract the scattering length and the effective range in the $^3S_1$ and $^1S_0$ channels. Our results for these quantities are consistent with those obtained by the NPLQCD collaboration from effective field theory analyses but are in conflict with their determination based on the effective-range approximation.

The reaction $NN \to NN \pi$ offers a good testing ground for chiral effective field theory at intermediate energies. It challenges our understanding of the first inelastic channel in nucleon-nucleon scattering and of the charge-symmetry breaking pattern in hadronic reactions. In our previous studies, we presented a complete calculation of the pion-production operator for s-wave pions up-to-and-including next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in the formulation of chiral effective field theory, which includes pions, nucleons and $\Delta(1232)$ degrees of freedom. In this paper we calculate the near threshold cross section for the $pp \to d \pi^{+}$ reaction by performing the convolution of the obtained operators with nuclear wave functions based on modern phenomenological and chiral potentials. The available chiral $NN$ wave functions are constructed with a cutoff comparable with the momentum transfer scale inherent in pion production reactions. Hence, a significant portion of the dynamical intermediate-range physics is thereby cut off by them. On the other hand, the NNLO amplitudes evaluated with phenomenological wave functions appear to be largely independent of the $NN$ model used and give corrections to the dominant leading order contributions as expected from dimensional analysis. The result gives support to the counting scheme used to classify the pion production operators, which is a precondition for a reliable investigation of the chirally suppressed neutral pion production. The explicit inclusion of the $\Delta(1232)$ is found to be important but smaller than expected due to cancellations., Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

Chiral extrapolation of the $X(3872)$ binding energy is investigated using the modified Weinberg formulation of chiral effective field theory for the $D \bar{D}^*$ scattering. Given its explicit renormalisability, this approach is particularly useful to explore the interplay of the long- and short-range $D \bar{D}^*$ forces in the $X(3872)$ from studying the light-quark (pion) mass dependence of its binding energy. In particular, the parameter-free leading-order calculation shows that the $X$-pole disappears for unphysical large pion masses. On the other hand, without contradicting the naive dimensional analysis, the higher-order pion-mass-dependent contact interaction can change the slope of the binding energy at the physical point yielding the opposite scenario of a stronger bound $X$ at pion masses larger than its physical value. An important role of the pion dynamics and of the 3-body $D\bar{D}\pi$ effects for chiral extrapolations of the $X$-pole is emphasised. The results of the present study should be of practical value for the lattice simulations since they provide a non-trivial connection between lattice points at unphysical pion masses and the physical world., Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures

The longest-range part of the nuclear force due to the one-pion exchange governs the energy dependence of the scattering amplitude in the near-threshold region and imposes correlations between the coefficients in the effective range expansion. These correlations may be regarded as low-energy theorems and are known to hold to a high accuracy in the neutron-proton 3S1 partial wave. We generalize the low-energy theorems to the case of unphysical pion masses and provide results for the correlations between the coefficients in the effective range expansion in this partial wave for pion masses up to Mpi ~ 400 MeV. We discuss the implications of our findings for the available and upcoming lattice-QCD simulations of two-nucleon observables., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables

In a recent paper Phys.Rev.Lett. 111, 042002 (2013) (arXiv:1304.0846), the charmonium state X(3872) is studied in the framework of an effective field theory. In that work it is claimed that (i) the one-pion exchange (OPE) alone provides sufficient binding to produce the X as a shallow bound state at the $D^0\bar{D}^{*0}$ threshold, (ii) short-range dynamics (described by a contact interaction) provides only moderate corrections to the OPE, and (iii) the X-pole disappears as the pion mass is increased slightly and therefore the X should not be seen on the lattice, away from the pion physical mass point, if it were a molecular state. In this paper we demonstrate that the results of Phys.Rev.Lett. 111, 042002 (2013) (arXiv:1304.0846) suffer from technical as well as conceptual problems and therefore do not support the conclusions drawn by the authors., Comment: LaTeX2e, 7 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Phys.Rev.D

A calculation of the pion-production operator up to next-to-next-to-leading order for s-wave pions is performed within chiral effective field theory. In the previous study [Phys. Rev. C 85, 054001 (2012)] we discussed the contribution of the pion-nucleon loops at the same order. Here we extend that study to include explicit Delta degrees of freedom and the 1/m_N^2 corrections to the pion-production amplitude. Using the power counting scheme where the Delta-nucleon mass difference is of the order of the characteristic momentum scale in the production process, we calculate all tree-level and loop diagrams involving Delta up to next-to-next-to-leading order. The long-range part of the Delta loop contributions is found to be of similar size to that from the pion-nucleon loops which supports the counting scheme. The net effect of pion-nucleon and Delta loops is expected to play a crucial role in understanding of the neutral pion production data., Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures

We explore the quark-mass dependence of the pole position of the X(3872) state within the molecular picture. The calculations are performed within the framework of a nonrelativistic Faddeev-type three-body equation for the $D\bar{D}\pi$ system in the $J^{PC}=1^{++}$ channel. The $\pi D$ interaction is parametrised via a $D^*$ pole, and a three-body force is included to render the equations well defined. Its strength is adjusted such that the X(3872) appears as a $D\bar{D}^*$ bound state 0.5 MeV below the neutral threshold. We find that the trajectory of the X(3872) depends strongly on the assumed quark-mass dependence of the short-range interactions which can be determined in future lattice QCD calculations. At the same time we are able to provide nontrivial information on the chiral extrapolation in the $X$ channel., Comment: LaTeX2e, 14 pages, 5 figures, references updated and extended, to appear in Phys.Lett.B

The transverse spin correlations A_{x,x} and A_{y,y} have been measured in the pol{d} pol{p} -> p_spec {pp}_s pi- reaction at COSY-ANKE at 353 MeV per nucleon. Here {pp}_s denotes a proton-proton pair with low excitation energy, which is dominantly in the 1S0 state. By measuring three protons in the final state it was possible to extract events where there was a spectator proton p_spec so that the reaction could be interpreted in terms of quasi-free pol{n} pol{p} -> {pp}_s pi-. The proton analyzing power in this reaction was also deduced from this data set by averaging over the polarization of the deuteron beam. The values of A_y^p were shown to be consistent with a refined analysis of our earlier results obtained with a polarized proton incident on a deuterium target. Taking these data in combination with our earlier measurements of the differential cross sections and analyzing powers in the pol{p} p -> {pp}_s pi^0 reaction, a more robust partial wave decomposition was achieved. Three different acceptable solutions were found and the only way of resolving this ambiguity without further theoretical input would be through a measurement of the mixed spin-correlation parameter A_{x,z}.

Important contributions to meson-nucleus scattering are produced by terms in the multiple-scattering series, which is defined as the sum of all diagrams where the meson scatters back and forth between a pair of static nucleons before leaving the nucleus. In particular, the sum of this series is needed for an accurate description of kaon-deuteron scattering, and appears as part of the nucleon-nucleon potential. In this article we present some effective-field-theory (EFT)-based insights into this series in the case of two-nucleon systems. In particular, we discuss the fact that, if meson-nucleon scattering is approximated by the scattering-length term, individual terms of the series are divergent, and enhanced with respect to the straightforward expectation from chiral perturbation theory ($\chi$PT). This apparently indicates the presence of similarly enhanced counterterms. However, we show that when the series is resummed the divergences cancel, such that no additional information on short-range interactions is needed to obtain predictions for observables after resummation. We discuss the conditions under which this resummation is justified. We show that the same issues arise in the $NN$ potential, where the resummed series produces poles whose appearance indicates the breakdown scale of the $\chi$PT expansion for that quantity. This demonstrates unequivocally that $\chi$PT cannot be applied to compute $V(r)$ for distances smaller than $r \sim 1$ fm at least in the theory without explicit Delta(1232) degrees of freedom. We briefly discuss whether this bound can be lowered if the Delta resonance is included in the EFT as an explicit degree of freedom., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures

A complete calculation of the pion-nucleon loops that contribute to the transition operator for $NN\to NN\pi$ up-to-and-including next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^2$LO) in chiral effective field theory near threshold is presented. The evaluation is based on the so-called momentum counting scheme, which takes into account the relatively large momentum of the initial nucleons inherent in pion-production reactions. We show that the significant cancellations between the loops found at next-to-leading order (NLO) in the earlier studies are also operative at N$^2$LO. In particular, the $1/m_N$ corrections (with $m_N$ being the nucleon mass) to loop diagrams cancel at N$^2$LO, as do the contributions of the pion loops involving the low-energy constants $c_i$, i=1...4. In contrast to the NLO calculation however, the cancellation of loops at N$^2$LO is incomplete, yielding a non-vanishing contribution to the transition amplitude. Together with the one-pion exchange tree-level operators, the loop contributions provide the long-range part of the production operator. Finally, we discuss the phenomenological implications of these findings. In particular, we find that the amplitudes generated by the N$^2$LO pion loops yield contributions comparable in size with the most important phenomenological heavy-meson exchange amplitudes., Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

In order to establish links between p-wave pion production in nucleon-nucleon collisions and low energy three-nucleon scattering, an extensive programme of experiments on pion production is currently underway at COSY-ANKE. The final proton pair is measured at very low excitation energy, leading to an S-wave diproton, denoted here as {pp}_s. By using a deuterium target we have obtained data on the differential cross section and analysing power of the quasi-free pol{p}n -> {pp}_s pi^- reaction at 353 MeV. The spectator proton p_sp was either measured directly in silicon tracking telescopes or reconstructed using the momentum of a detected pi^-. Both observables can be described in terms of s-, p-, and d-wave pion production amplitudes. Taken together with the analogous data on the pol{p}p -> {pp}_s pi^0 reaction, full partial wave decompositions of both processes were carried out., Comment: The interested reader should also study the paper on pizero production by D.Tsirkov et al., which has also been submitted to the arXiv

In order to establish links between p-wave pion production in nucleon-nucleon collisions and low energy three-nucleon scattering, an extensive programme of experiments on pion production is currently underway at COSY-ANKE. The final proton pair is detected at very low excitation energy, leading to an S-wave diproton, denoted here as {pp}_s. We now report on measurements of the differential cross section and analysing power of the pol{p}p->{pp}_s pi^0$ reaction at 353 MeV. Both observables can be described in terms of s- and d-wave pion production and, by using the phase information from elastic pp scattering, unique solutions can be obtained for the corresponding amplitudes. This information is vital for the partial wave decomposition of the corresponding pn->{pp}_s pi^- reaction and hence for the extraction of the p-wave terms., Comment: The interested reader is advised to study also the paper on pi minus production by S.Dymov et al., which has also been submitted to the arXiv

We investigate the role played by the three-body $D\bar{D}\pi$ dynamics on the near-threshold resonance X(3872) charmonium state, which is assumed to be formed by nonperturbative $D\bar D^*$ dynamics. It is demonstrated that, as compared to the naive static-pions approximation, the imaginary parts that originate from the inclusion of dynamical pions reduce substantially the width from the $D\bar{D}\pi$ intermediate state. In particular, for a resonance peaked at 0.5 MeV below the $D^0\bar D^{*0}$ threshold, this contribution to the width is reduced by about a factor of 2, and the effect of the pion dynamics on the width grows as long as the resonance is shifted towards the $D^0\bar{D^0}\pi^0$ threshold. Although the physical width of the $X$ is dominated by inelastic channels, our finding should still be of importance for the $X$ line shapes in the $D\bar{D}\pi$ channel below $D{\bar D}^*$ threshold. For example, in the scattering length approximation, the imaginary part of the scattering length includes effects of all the pion dynamics and does not only stem from the $D^*$ width. Meanwhile, we find that another important quantity for the $X$ phenomenology, the residue at the $X$ pole, is weakly sensitive to dynamical pions. In particular, we find that the binding energy dependence of this quantity from the full calculation is close to that found from a model with pointlike $D\bar D^*$ interactions only, consistent with earlier claims. Coupled-channel effects (inclusion of the charged $D\bar{D}^*$ channel) turn out to have a moderate impact on the results., Comment: 34 pages, 6 figures, version to appear in Phys.Rev.D

We use chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) to calculate the $\pi^- d$ scattering length with an accuracy of a few percent, including isospin-violating corrections both in the two- and three-body sector. In particular, we provide the technical details of a recent letter, where we used data on pionic deuterium and pionic hydrogen atoms to extract the isoscalar and isovector pion-nucleon scattering lengths $a^+$ and $a^-$. We study isospin-breaking contributions to the three-body part of $a_{\pi^-d}$ due to mass differences, isospin violation in the $\pi N$ scattering lengths, and virtual photons. This last class of effects is ostensibly infrared enhanced due to the smallness of the deuteron binding energy. However, we show that the leading virtual-photon effects that might undergo such enhancement cancel, and hence the standard ChPT counting provides a reliable estimate of isospin violation in $a_{\pi^- d}$ due to virtual photons. Finally, we discuss the validity of the Goldberger-Miyazawa-Oehme sum rule in the presence of isospin violation, and use it to determine the charged-pion-nucleon coupling constant., Comment: 46 pages, 7 figures. Discussion of several points expanded, references added, version published in Nuclear Physics A

We report on a high-statistics measurement of the basic double pionic fusion reaction $pn \to d\pi^0\pi^0$ over the energy region of the so-called ABC effect, a pronounced low-mass enhancement in the $\pi\pi$-invariant mass spectrum. The measurements were performed with the WASA detector setup at COSY. The data reveal the ABC effect to be associated with a Lorentzian shaped energy dependence in the integral cross section. The observables are consistent with a resonance with $I(J^P) =0(3^+)$ in both $pn$ and $\Delta\Delta$ systems. Necessary further tests of the resonance interpretation are discussed.

We demonstrate that in calculation, where unitarity constraints are properly imposed, the deeply bound hadronic molecules recently proposed by Close and Downum do not exist., Comment: one page, one figure

We present a calculation of the pi^- d scattering length with an accuracy of a few percent using chiral perturbation theory. For the first time isospin-violating corrections are included consistently. Using data on pionic deuterium and pionic hydrogen atoms, we extract the isoscalar and isovector pion-nucleon scattering lengths and obtain a^+=(7.6 +/- 3.1) x 10^{-3} mpi^{-1} and a^-=(86.1 +/- 0.9) x 10^{-3} mpi^{-1}. Via the Goldberger-Miyazawa-Oehme sum rule, this leads to a charged-pion-nucleon coupling constant g_c^2/4 pi = 13.69 +/- 0.20., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Discussion of several points expanded, references added in this version, which will appear in Physics Letters B

We calculate the leading isospin conserving few-nucleon contributions to pion scattering on $^2$H, $^3$He, and $^4$He. We demonstrate that the strong contributions to the pion-nucleus scattering lengths can be controlled theoretically to an accuracy of a few percent for isoscalar nuclei and of 10% for isovector nuclei. In particular, we find the $\pi$-$^3$He scattering length to be $(62 \pm 4\pm 7)\times 10^{-3} m_{\pi}^{-1}$ where the uncertainties are due to ambiguities in the $\pi$-N scattering lengths and few-nucleon effects, respectively. To establish this accuracy we need to identify a suitable power counting for pion-nucleus scattering. For this purpose we study the dependence of the two-nucleon contributions to the scattering length on the binding energy of $^2$H. Furthermore, we investigate the relative size of the leading two-, three-, and four-nucleon contributions. For the numerical evaluation of the pertinent integrals, aMonte Carlo method suitable for momentum space is devised. Our results show that in general the power counting suggested by Weinberg is capable to properly predict the relative importance of $N$-nucleon operators, however, it fails to capture the relative strength of $N$- and $(N+1)$-nucleon operators, where we find a suppression by a factor of 5 compared to the predicted factor of 50. The relevance for the extraction of the isoscalar $\pi$-N scattering length from pionic $^2$H and $^4$He is discussed. As a side result, we show that beyond the calculation of the $\pi$-$^2$H scattering length is already beyond the range of applicability of heavy pion effective field theory., Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, 10 tables

We investigate the interplay of quark and meson degrees of freedom in a physical state representing a near-threshold resonance for the case of a single continuum channel. We demonstrate that such a near-threshold resonance may possess quite peculiar properties if both quark and meson dynamics generate weakly coupled near-threshold poles in the S-matrix. In particular, the scattering t-matrix may possess zeros in this case. We also discuss possible implications for production reactions as well as studies within lattice QCD., Comment: LaTeX2e, 11 pages, minor typo corrections, to appear in Eur.Phys.J.A

We investigate the role of the nucleon recoil for antikaon-deuteron scattering using EFT. In particular, we show that the leading correction to the static term that appears at order $\xi^{1/2}$ (where $\xi=m_K/M_N$) cancels completely in the double scattering process. We calculate the higher order recoil corrections and study the pattern of convergence of the expansion method. We find that the recoil correction to the double scattering process is of order of 10-15% of the static contribution., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the International Workshop on Effective Field Theories, 1st - 6th February 2009, PoS(EFT09)028

We perform a complete calculation of charge symmetry breaking effects for the reaction pn -> d pi0 at leading order in chiral perturbation theory. A new leading-order operator is included. From our analysis we extract \delta m_N^{str}, the strong contribution to the neutron-proton mass difference. The value obtained, \delta m_N^{str} = 1.5 \pm 0.8 (exp.) \pm 0.5 (th.) MeV, is consistent with the result based on the Cottingham sum rule. This agreement provides a non-trivial test of our current understanding of the chiral structure of QCD., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, revised version accepted by PLB

We investigate p-wave pion production in nucleon-nucleon collisions up to next-to-next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory. In particular, we show that it is possible to describe simultaneously the p-wave amplitudes in the $pn\to pp\pi^-$, $pp\to pn\pi^+$, $pp\to d\pi^+$ channels by adjusting a single low-energy constant accompanying the short-range operator which is available at this order. This study provides a non-trivial test of the applicability of chiral effective field theory to reactions of the type $NN\to NN\pi$., Comment: 29 pages, revised version published in PRC

The effect of the nucleon recoil for antikaon-deuteron scattering is investigated in the framework of effective field theory. In particular, we concentrate on the calculation of the nucleon recoil effect for the double-scattering process. It is shown that the leading correction to the static term that emerges at order xi^{1/2} with xi=M_K/m_N vanishes due to a complete cancellation of individually large contributions. The resulting recoil effect in this process is found to be of order of 10-15% as compared to the static term. We also briefly discuss the application of the method in the calculations of the multiple-scattering diagrams., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures

We survey the recent developments in the reaction $NN \to NN\pi$ in effective field theory. We show that the proper construction of the production operator needs a careful separation of irreducible pieces from reducible ones. The result of this consideration is a complete cancellation of all loops in the production operator at NLO. Moreover, we show that this procedure brings the leading Weinberg-Tomozawa vertex on-shell, thus enhancing the corresponding contribution to the transition amplitude by a factor of 4/3 as compared to the commonly used value. We also discuss the role of the $\Delta(1232)$ for the s-wave pion production. Being relatively sizable individually the direct and rescattering mechanisms of the $\Delta$ excitation at NLO cancel each other to a large extent. Thus, we conclude that the net effect of the $\Delta$ at NLO is very small., Comment: 10 papes, 7 figures. Invited talk to the 11th International Conference on Meson-Nucleon Physics and the Structure of the Nucleon, Sept. 10th-14th 2007 (MENU 2007), Juelich, Germany

A complete calculation of the corrections to pion-deuteron scattering length up to order $\chi^{3/2}$ with $\chi=m_{\pi}/M_{N}$ is performed. The calculation includes the dispersive contributions and corrections due to the explicit treatment of the $\Delta$ resonance. s-wave pion-nucleon scattering parameters are extracted from a combined analysis of modern experimental data., Comment: 10 papes, 3 figures. Invited talk to the 11th International Conference on Meson-Nucleon Physics and the Structure of the Nucleon, Sept. 10th-14th 2007 (MENU 2007), Juelich, Germany

We investigate the role of the delta isobar in the reaction $\pi d\to \pi d$ at threshold in chiral effective field theory. We discuss the corresponding power counting and argue that this calculation completes the evaluation of diagrams up to the order (m_pi/M_N)^(3/2), with m_pi (M_N) for the pion (nucleon) mass. The net effect of all delta contributions at this order to the pion-deuteron scattering length is (2.4 +/- 0.4)x 10^(-3) m_pi^{-1}., Comment: 11 pages

We discuss the possibility to extract the neutron-neutron scattering length a_{nn} from experimental spectra on the reaction gamma d --> pi^+ nn. The transition operator is calculated to high accuracy from chiral perturbation theory. We argue that for properly chosen kinematics, the theoretical uncertainty of the method can be as low as 0.1 fm., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures

We study the production amplitude for the reaction $NN\to NN\pi$ up to next-to-leading order in chiral perturbation theory. We show that the irreducible chiral loops at this order exactly cancel those terms that arise from the off-shell parts of the $\pi N$ rescattering vertex. This cancellation is required for formal consistency of the whole scheme. The net effect of the inclusion of all next-to-leading order loops is to enhance the leading rescattering amplitude by a factor of 4/3 compared to phenomenological studies, bringing its contribution to the cross section for $pp\to d\pi^+$ close to the experimental value., Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the international conference MESON 2006, Cracow, Poland, 9 - 13 June 2006; 4 pages, 2 figures, uses ws-ijmpa.cls

We present a parameter--free calculation of the dispersive and absorptive contributions to the pion--deuteron scattering length based on chiral perturbation theory. We show that once all diagrams contributing to leading order to this process are included, their net effect provides a small correction to the real part of the pion--deuteron scattering length. At the same time the sizable imaginary part of the pion--deuteron scattering length is reproduced accurately., Comment: Numerical error corrected. Results for dispersive corrections changed - conclusions unchanged. Version as accepted by Phys. Lett. B

A relationship between the chemical composition, structure and luminescent properties of light-emitting SiOxNy(Si) composite layers with Si nanocrystals is demonstrated. Photoluminescence (PL) with a maximum of intensity at 500-600 nm is observed in a narrow region of chemical compositions with relatively small Si excess (about 10 at. %). Composite layers structure is studied by means of HRTEM. Appearance of nanocrystals due to annealing is accompanied by substantial growth (30-40 times) of PL intensity but do not change PL spectra shape. Chemical composition of structural luminescent-active complexes with excess Si atomes is determined by XPS technique.

We study the production amplitude for the reaction NN->NNpi up to next--to--leading order in chiral perturbation theory using a counting scheme that takes into account the large scale introduced by the initial momentum. In particular we investigate a subtlety that arises once the leading loop contributions are convoluted with the NN wavefunctions as demanded by the non--perturbative nature of the NN interaction. We show how to properly identify the irreducible contribution of loop diagrams in such type of reaction. The net effect of the inclusion of all next-to-leading order loops is to enhance the leading rescattering amplitude by a factor of 4/3, bringing its contribution to the cross section for pp->dpi+ close to the experimental value., Comment: 15 Pages, 5 Figures

The reaction $\gamma d\to \pi^+ nn$ is calculated up to order $\chi^{5/2}$ in chiral perturbation theory, where $\chi$ denotes the ratio of the pion to the nucleon mass. Special emphasis is put on the role of nucleon--recoil corrections that are the source of contributions with fractional power in $\chi$. Using the known near threshold production amplitude for $\gamma p\to \pi^+ n$ as the only input, the total cross section for $\gamma d\to \pi^+ nn$ is described very well. A conservative estimate suggests that the theoretical uncertainty for the transition operator amounts to 3 % for the computed amplitude near threshold., Comment: 28 pages

We explore the features of Flatte-like parametrizations. In particular, we demonstrate that the large variation in the absolute values of the coupling constants to the pi-eta (or pi-pi) and KKbar channels for the a_0(980) and f_0(980) mesons that one can find in the literature can be explained by a specific scaling behaviour of the Flatte amplitude for energies near the KKbar threshold. We argue that the ratio of the coupling constants can be much better determined from a fit to experimental data., Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures

The role of the nucleon recoil corrections in low--energy meson--nucleus interactions is examined. We demonstrate explicitly when calculations within the static approximation are justified and when the recoil terms need to be kept explictly in the propagators, depending on whether the S-wave two--nucleon intermediate state is Pauli blocked or not, while the meson is in flight. While the effect is studied in detail for $\pi d$ scattering only, a large class of other reactions is discussed for which the findings are relevant as well., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figures

We study the interesting problem of whether it is possible to distinguish composite from elementary particles. In particular we generalize a model-independent approach of S. Weinberg to the case of unstable particles. This allows us to apply our formalism to the case of the a0(980) and f0(980) resonances and to address the question whether these particles are predominantly genuine, confined quark states (of $\bar q q$ or $qq\bar q\bar q$ structure) or governed by mesonic components., Comment: 15 pages, 4 Figures

We demonstrate that one can use the occurrence of charge symmetry breaking as a tool to explore the eta--nucleus interaction near the eta threshold. Based on indications that the cross section ratio of pi+ and pi0 production on nuclei deviates from the isotopic value in the vicinity of the eta production threshold, due to, e.g., pi0-eta mixing, we argue that a systematic study of this ratio as a function of the energy would allow to pin down the sign of the real part of the eta-nucleus scattering length. This sign plays an important role in the context of the possible existence of eta-nucleus bound states., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure